wordparts was down tonight for a few hours. Ethernet cable fell out. Oops.

Wear sunscreen.

My goal: to learn enough, through study and hands-on experience, to be able to contribute to large software projects; specifically Mozilla (especially the Chimera project), and modern UNIX-like systems.

I’ve always been attracted to the idea of attaining deep knowledge and a level of mastery of a discipline, rather than just learning “enough”.

I’d just begun to make a mental note of the cartoon anthropomorphic burrito on the front of the menu as a signifier of such arbitrary ‘otherness’ when I yelled, ‘What the hell am I doing?’.

— The Onion, Grad Student Deconstructs Take-Out Menu

Here is a brilliant satirical article by Douglas R. Hofstadter: A Person Paper on Purity in Language.

Well worth the read.

Furniture covered with plastic. A denial of one’s mortality?

CREED IS HORRIBLE

— seen on a bumper sticker

Here’s a joke I came across on Plastic. I think. Unfortunately, it was several days ago, very late at night. I only e-mailed myself the joke and now I can’t find its author to credit it. Oh well, he probably wasn’t the originator anyway. Sorry, Unknown Programmer Joke Person.

A programmer goes to his insurance agent, and says, “I’m so glad that I have a policy with you, something terrible has happened — my house just burned down! But I have full coverage with your agency, and I’d like to file a claim.”

The agent says, “Well then, let’s have a look at your policy…” and rummages in his files.

After a moment, he pulls out a document, and reads a bit of it. His brow knits in concern, and he says “I’m sorry, we can’t cover your claim.”

“But I have full Fire and Flood coverage!” cries the programmer in disbelief.

The agent replies: “Yes, that’s your problem. You need Fire or Flood coverage.”

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge…

— Charles Darwin

Aimee Mann’s new album, Lost in Space, will be available on August 27, 2002. Until then, it can be streamed for free from her site. Definitely worth checking out.

Probably more California than New York. Definitely more New York than Texas.

Man, money really sucks sometimes.

$65 citation for having overdue car inspection.

$625 to replace the broken windshield that was keeping me from getting my car inspected.

$40 for the actual inspection and another $30 to get my oil changed while I’m at it.

$49 for this year’s .Mac service.

$7 a month to listen to Phil Hendrie now that terrorist attacks have made anti-intelligent ranting preferable to relevant and insightful comedy. (yeah, local radio is terrible)

Rent, electricity, phone, DSL/Internet, etcetera.

Okay, okay, now that I’ve got the money ranting off my chest, I’ll get back to sipping my soy latte and feeling guilty about the oppressed people of some third-world country. You’re welcome.

Attractive things work better.

This explains, far better than I could, one reason why many people feel so much more creative on a Mac.

You can measure empirically the performance of a database server or an electric motor. Would you try to do the same for a paintbrush or a guitar?

There’s a reason why they call them personal computers.

Capri pants. The sweat pants for the 21st Century?

Capri pants look horrendous. They are one of the worst fashions in the last decade. As a kid growing up totally clueless I never forget what other kids once asked about one pair of my pants. “Are those long shorts? Or short longs?” The point is if children can see how awful they look, why can’t you see it? Come on. Another half-baked fashion idea sold to the clueless masses. They look like 1920s golfing pants. They look like hand-me downs, from your older and shorter brother or sister and you’re so poor, you can’t afford to buy clothes that fit. They look like you don’t know how to do the laundry, and you cranked up the heat and shrunk them. They look like you are planning to wade in the water. It makes no difference if they are tight — or baggy — both are horrendous. No wonder they are called bitch pants.

— fashioncritic.net

(note: this doesn’t apply to all capri-pant/capri-pant-wearer combinations.)